As the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some of the Sons and Daughters Confederacy groups are planning a number of events around the secession of the 11 states when they declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union.
The four-year long celebration will include good ole’ boy festivities such as war reenactments, memorial parades and of course, “secession balls,” which will be held on the same hollow grounds that once served as slave plantations and ports. Yet, for most of these events, there will be no mention of one of the most integral parts of the era – slavery.
According to the NY Times, many of these Sons and Daughters confederacy groups don’t want to bring the mood down by mixing in depressing talk of our nation’s slave past. For them, this is a celebration of state’s rights – a fight and sentiment that still seems to be echoed to this day throughout the entire Tea Party movement.
Historically speaking, there has always been some debate surrounding the reasons why the war between the North and the South began. History books tell us that it was a war solely fought to end slavery; however, some historians have argued that the war was more about the North’s ambitions to impose a single industrial economy on the country –and the way to do that was to preserve the Union.
The reality is that what lead to the war between the North and South is not as simplistic as either side wants us to believe. To ignore the fact that slavery was a motivating factor for secession – thus the pending civil war – ignores basic economics of the era since slavery remained the backbone of the 11 succeeding states’ economies.
Likewise, to think that the Civil War was only about ending slavery is the equivalent of believing that the war in Iraq is solely based on freedom.
Quite honestly, I never understood the need for Civil War (or any war) commemorations since they only seek to engage in romanticized views of the South and the North. And as insolent as it is for Civil War era celebrations to omit the history of slavery, I find it equally abhorrent when Northern commemorations feed us half-truths about the “free” North and their role in the abolitionist movement.
The last time one of these Sons and Daughters groups decided to include a “slavery theme” in one of their events was when we got pictures of a South Carolina senator posing and smiling in a uniform between two black men dressed as slaves.
The bigger issue for me is how much does a black actor get paid to participate in one of these events?
Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.
